Future in the past: was going to quando si usa

La forma futura "be going to" è un ottimo modo per parlare del futuro, e possiamo anche usarla nel passato. Ma come e cosa significa? Continuate a leggere per scoprirlo!

• Was/were going to –come lo usiamo per creare “the future in the past”?
• Future in the past con l’utilizzo di ‘would’
• Future in the past – alcuni esempi

Was/were going to – come usarlo per creare “the future in the past”?

Come probabilmente saprai, si usa ‘be going to’ per parlare intenzioni future. Ad esempio:

I’m going to leave work early today because I need to go to the bank.

Ho già deciso che questo sarà quello che faro in futuro.

Posso usare questa stessa struttura al passato per descrivere un'intenzione precedente che ho cambiato.. For example:

I was going to leave work early but I couldn’t because I had too many things to do.

Creiamo questa struttura semplicemente cambiando l'ausiliare "essere" dal presente al passato:

Questa è anche una struttura molto utile da utilizzare quando si ha bisogno di trovare una scusa. Ad esempio:

Boss: Why didn’t you send the report?

Employee: I was going to send it but there was some data missing.

Teacher: Why didn’t you do your homework?

Students: We were going to do it but it was too difficult.

Future in the past con ‘would’

Come abbiamo visto in precedenza, si usa "I'm going to" per parlare di intenzioni e piani. Quando si esprimono decisioni al momento di parlare, si fanno promesse o previsioni, si usa "will". Per esempio:

I think we will stay at home this evening.

E se spostiamo la frase dal presente al passato, cambiamo "will" in "would". 

I thought we would stay at home this evening.

Di seguito altri esempi:

They said they would help us.

He was sure they would win the match.

She promised she would arrive on time.

Useful tip!

Fate attenzione quando traducete il futuro al passato dall'italiano all'inglese, perché mentre in italiano si usa 'would have' + il participio passato, in inglese si usa would + l'infinito. Confronta:

Tina said she would buy a gift.

Tina ha detto che avrebbe comprato un regalo.

Future in the past – alcuni esempi 

• I was going to make a cake but there isn’t enough flour.
• We were going to have a barbeque but there was a heavy storm.
• Phil was going to be the new boss but he decided to take early retirement.
• I thought you were going to tidy your room. Why didn’t you?
• She was going to come by train but there’s a strike so she’s driving.
• They were going to visit us on their way home.
• You were going to send the minutes from the meeting yesterday, weren’t you?
• He wasn’t going to come to the party, but then his friends convinced him to come.
• We were going to get married in 2020 but then there was Covid.
• I was going to watch a film yesterday evening but I fell asleep!

Se vuoi metti alla prova il tuo inglese con il nostro test per il livello B1-B2: